Branding yourself for a career transition in today’s competitive job market is very complicated.

In order to effectively market your career history, your level of expertise, education, and qualifications relevant for a certain position, it is essential to adapt a couple of useful branding techniques listed below.

Through this highly valuable information, you will see a significant boost in your job search.

Too many job seekers focus solely on their former job functions and performance without concentrating on significant skills they performed that are associated with certain relevant elements of their targeted career industry or position.

This will make the transformation process very tough on your part. In today’s job market, hiring managers have the luxury of choosing from a significant pool of candidates to consider for a certain position. Sometimes hundreds of applicants.

Gone are the days of simply providing on the job training to candidates with little or no background experience. There is rarely ever a shortage of job candidates or skills in today’s market. Companies have access to hundreds of applicants, several with extensive related experience in the targeted industry. In today’s recovering economy, hiring managers are required to do more with less, and thus, hire less people, almost always focusing on candidates with a strong background.

As a job candidate, you have to prove that you can achieve excellence within a relatively short period of time as a motivated, skilled, and fast-paced professional. You also need to prove that while you are changing industries, you still have some great skills and / or education easily transferable to your new targeted position. This is combined with your ability and willingness to learn and develop new skills.

Branding is Essential to Achieve Success:

Instead of simply just listing and focusing on your former positions and duties, you need to learn how to brand yourself through prior skills and functions you have performed that address the specific needs required for achieving excellence in your targeted position.

For example, if you are an executive director or manager for an established company, and are seeking a career change as a teacher / educator, you could brand yourself in the following ways.

In this case you can benefit yourself by emphasizing your advanced leadership and time management skills on your resume. This can be combined with strong communication and presentation abilities, and of course, your education pertaining to the industry / position.

The following is an example:

“Determined executive director seeking the ability / privilege to utilize advanced leadership, communication, and presentation skills in accomplishing excellence in the role as a teacher / educator.”

This can be incorporated at the beginning of the resume within the summary profile. Remember, that your resume needs to convey your overall value and qualifications for a particular position within the first 4 to 6 minutes of viewing the document.

At the center front of the resume, you could once again benefit from incorporating a list of achievements where you improved the performance of several employees as a strong leader and mentor.

Emphasize the growth you have provided a company or business through strong management, training, and communication skills.

If this is done correctly, you will much more likely grab the attention of a hiring manager or recruiter and improve your chances of obtaining an interview.

Recent education is something else to focus on in branding yourself for a career change. This is, of course, only if the education pertains to your targeted position or industry. In this case, you will want to list your education on the first page of the resume along with your achievements mentioned above.

So, just remember to brand yourself for a career transition by maintaining a strong focus on skills and accomplishments that easily transfer / shift to your newly desired spot within the career spectrum. In this case, you will expand your chances of gaining fulfilling employment and significantly improve your overall job search. Good luck!

Stewart, Cooper & Coon, has helped thousands of decision makers and senior executives move up in their careers and achieve significantly improved financial packages within short time frames. Contact Fred Coon – 866-883-4200, Ext. 200